Quéribus is high and isolated. It stands on top of the highest
peak for miles around. From a distance it can be seen on the horizon,
sticking up into the sky.

It is accessible to visitors. You can drive almost to it, walking
just the last few hundred metres. The entrance to the castle itself
is very steep and narrow – a defensive measure. Notice the
number of arrow slits covering the approach.

Location

Phone
number: 04 68 45 03 69. Opening times: In April and October of 9.30am
to 18.30pm. May, June and September 9.30am to 7pm. July and August
9am to 8pm and any other time from 10am to 5pm. Closed all of February.

Closest village: Maury: Population 1000.

Perched on a narrow rocky outcrop, the castle stands proudly at
728 metres altitude. The name comes from the Occitan for rock-boxtree
and even today you will notice huge numbers of wild box trees growing
there..

History

1255 a French army was dispatched to deal with the last Cathar
stronghold, but the Cathars slipped away without a fight, probably
to Aragon or Piedmont, both regions where Cathar beliefs were still
common, and where the Occitan language was spoken.

Mentioned in 1020, the castle of Quéribus was part of the
County of Besalù, then of Barcelona and was later held as
a royal fortress by the house of Aragon in 1162.

The castle of Quéribus is situated on the commune of Cucugnan
which is renowned in French literature as the site of the ‘Priest's
Sermon' by Alphonse Daudet.

A ‘Cucugnan family' appeared for the first time in 1193.

During the Crusade against the Albigensians, this family was presented
as being one of the fervent defenders of the Languedoc cause.

Before 1240, Pierre de Cucugnan took food and stores to Cathars
in the castle of Puilaurens
and sheltered the dispossessed knight Guiraud d'Aniort from the
Plateau de Sault.

In 1240, Pierre joined Raymond Trencavel at his siege of Carcassonne.
Following the failure of the siege, Pierre surrendered to the French
King Louis IX ( Saint-Louis).

The castle of Quéribus continued to serve as a haven to
Cathars. The Cathar deacon of the Razès, Benoît de
Termes,
took refuge here under Chabert de Barbaira, who was finally forced
to surrender to Saint-Louis in 1255. The last stronghold to fall,
eleven years after the fall of Montségur,
Quéribus then became a piece in the French frontier defence
system.